St. Landry democrat., 1887-12-10
THE MATINEES
Now a Settled and Successful Feature IN
New ?urks Entertainments.


York IS q general term for the metropolis and
a section Of country embraced in the radius OF
twenty five miles from the city hall. Brook
ivn, Williamsburg, that indefinite quantity
known as Long Island Staten Island, HOBO
zen, Newark and ''up the river turn out
their multitudes every Saturday afternoon,
and they, coming early to town, lunch here
or there, do q little shopping, and make the
streets choral with their merry laughter and
ncessant chatter.
The matinee patronage of New York and
vicinity is a very significant factor in the
weekly receipts Of every frst-class theatre in
town. in view of the fact that ladies and
children form very large proportion OF the
multitude aforesaid, 1t appears strange that
managers pay such little attention to the
comfort, convenience and pecunary interest
Of their patrons
The Academy of Music and all our theatres
prior to a matinee performance are the grand
focal points for women children, dudes,
Washers and spectators. The crush in the
vestibules after the doors are open, the indie
cent pushing, hauling and rushing of the
frantic individuals composing the crowd, the
utter imbeeility and apparent impOtency OF
the officials, and the utter disregard of man
ayers for the comfort and convenience of
women, who are rudelv thrust from point to
point, and of little children, who, buried in
the crowd, are unable to see or to know
whittier they are pushed or hauled, combine
to make picture as amazing as 1t is
extraordinary. On Philharmonic days
these scenes are exaggerated to a degree
which husbands and fathers, not being pres
ent, cannot be expected to know of or 10 I'M
derstand when Informed about. But no one
who has witnessed the rudeness of the ladies
themselves the callousness and utter in
difference of the men in the crowd, the
calm placidity with which police officers re-
gard the tumult, would refuse to indorse the
assertion that the men and women there
cOngregated, in one common struggle and in
one conspcuou effort, by sheer strength
and brazen etfrontery, to outwlt and out
place their neigh bors. are much more like
savages. long kept from a desired meal, or
animals hungry and thirsty to the degree of
evaporation.
Another feature about this crowding is
one which requires official notice, being
most repreheHSible from every point of
view-legal as we'll as social.
The law expressly fOrbids a crowding of
aisles in any place of entertainment, and
also such assemblages of people about the
as shall make the exit of those inside diff
cult in case of danger or necessity. Never
theltSS. after every seat in the house has
been sold to individuals who hold coupons
emitting them to individual seats, admission
tickets are sold by the many hundreds.
A question of equity instantly arises.
If, for instance, when Patti was singing in
the Academy OF Music, and every seat being
sold, ladies, hundreds of them having
bought admission, say "Where are we
to go?" they are permitted by the ushers
to monopolize the stairways leading to
the lower portions of the house, and to
flock into the doors until they trench upon
the spaces in the aisles, and form an
lmpenetrable mass at every point of
advantage, so that i'll case of panic
or disturbance free exit from an al
ready overcrnwded place would be physi
cal impossibiity. This is what they pay for,
however; and if, as on several Saturdays
past, it becomes necessary to call upon the
police to aid the uSherS in their duty and to
prevent women from crowding further down
the aisles than in the Judgment of the chief
usher is advisable, the question means con-
siderable. Surely these tickets are not pur-
chased in order that ladies may promenade
the corridors or sit upon the stairs leading to
other portions of the building, or to f1atten
the nose of curiosity against the closed pane
of observation.
They pay FIR admission in the hope of see
1t is no laughing matter to ladies who
come from Newark or from Brooklyn, or
from Tarrytown, to be caught in one of the
academic crowds. They, like every one else,
are compelled to go through one door, and to
pack with other unfortunates in one narrow
of entrance guarded not only by the
doorkeeper, but by one of the managers
courtly subordinates in full uniform also
There they stand, sometimes an hour,
often half an hour, part and par ell of a ire
mendous throng of undiscipined and APP
parently thoughtless people, who have but
one end m view-to get ahead of somebody |
who stands in front of them, and thence
on, pushing elbowing, wriggling in, |
no matter at what cost or discomfort |
or annoyance to neighbors, and SO on |
past the dOOrkeeper and into the grand |
corridor itself: Ladies have been severed y
injured there, so much SO as to cause tears to |
flow. Children have been frightened, and
men. apparently forgetting that their strength |
is given them to protect rather than to in
jure, arr often noted as being the most vehe-
ment in their physical energy as they elbow
and push and shoulder and turn, determined |
to reach the desired haven little ahead of
somebody else.
This is not alone to be found at the Acad-
envy, but at many of the theatres, any one
of them, in fact, where there is great pop
ular attraction, where the laws Of decency,
VI equity, VI olhilldiy oOCld1 lIOpTieUy are
set at naught, and the provisions of the fire
law are laughed at by managers in their ear
nest quest for the almighty dollar.
But eager and interested as these people
are when in the theatre, the concert-hall or
the lecture-room, one of the most interesting
phases of their days devoir is when they
tumble promiscuously. helter-skelter, like
sheep over a rail fence, from academic
portal upon the broad streets of the great
metropolis.
How they talk, how they gossip. how they
chatter. how they laugh, standing in groups,
impeding progress upon the sidewalks, they
give no heed to any but themselves.
Estimating that in the thirty houses of en-
tertainment in New York there are received
on Saturday afternoon s30,0OO-and when
it is considered that the Academy, the Met
ropolitan Opera House and Henry Irving
are part and parcel of the attractions this
season, this is not large estimate-it will
be seen that no inconsiderable portion of the
week. income for theatrical and lyric man